Zouma even scored the winning goal in Chelsea's friendly against OL Ljubjana, ensuring that he has pulled out all the stops this pre-season.

And there is little pressure on the young defender ahead of the new season as there is, quite simply, very little to lose. Few would expect Zouma to displace either Gary Cahill or John Terry in central defence but, when he gets his chance, any strong performances would simply be a bonus.

The Real Madrid centre-back clearly has the potential to be world-class and Mourinho himself is a big fan of the 21-year-old.

In Zouma, however, the Blues have a more versatile defender two years younger than Varane. Those two years will be invaluable in terms of teaching the youngster and allowing him to adapt to the Premier League and, more importantly, Chelsea's expectations.

Bringing Varane to Stamford Bridge would set Mourinho's side back at least £21 million. But Zouma is already a Chelsea player.

Tim Poole

Tim Poole is a sports journalist for HITC with a love of football, tennis and snooker in particular.His career to date has seen him speak to former Manchester United boss David Moyes, interview snooker world champion Mark Selby and be snubbed by Premier League managers and players in more than one language!He is a massive Roger Federer fan and lives by the motto that 'sport is life.' When he's not writing about it, he's playing it, be it football, tennis, basketball, badminton, table tennis, darts, snooker, golf or even water polo. He is better at some than others...